Adalyn's Birthday Week!

This past week was spent celebrating Adalyn's 6th birthday!  This past year she has continued to develop in so many ways and we are so proud of the girl she has become.  She is our creative, kind, easy-going, and happy little girl!

To kick off her birthday celebration, we spent last Sunday at the Chocolate Factory- because what six year old doesn't love chocolate??!  She was definitely a happy girl at the end of the tour where they have unlimited chocolate for you to sample.

Mouth full of chocolate!

On Monday, her actual birthday, she was excited to bring in birthday cupcakes to share with her class.  Unlike Minnesota, they still get to bring in treats and they can even be homemade!

On Wednesday, she had her first 'friend' birthday party.  She invited ten kids and they spent the afternoon decorating cupcakes, cookies, making marshmallow pops, and of course playing outside!  We were very fortunate that it was 55 degrees and sunny outside, so the kids could run around and act like typical six year olds!  She is definitely a lucky girl to have so many great friends.

Adalyn's Baking Bash!

Sprinkles, sprinkles, and more sprinkles!!  

They played a game where you had to eat the donut without hands- very funny to watch!  

Parachute fun!

She enjoyed all of the birthday packages, drawings, and cards she received  It was quite an exciting 
time to check the mail box and see if anything had arrived!  

The girls love a show over here called, "I Can Cook," where the host Katie cooks with kids. While my mom was here, Adalyn requested an apron that looked just like Katie's.  So, my mom made them and they arrived just in time for the party- along with matching aprons for their dollies!  

This past weekend we celebrated the kick-off of the Fete de Escalade, the annual tradition in Geneva celebrating the defeat of a surprise attack in 1602.  Every year, they have a running race in old town Geneva, which Chris ran with his co-workers and some of our friends.

We also celebrated St. Nicholas Day yesterday by visiting Saint Nicholas, France.  It is a very small mountain village with an amazing church.

The next two weeks we are busy with different holiday parties, visiting Christmas markets, and getting ready for our trip to Minnesota!  We are so excited!!!  Wishing everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

A few pictures from our "Friendsgiving" that we celebrated last week.

All the kids enjoying their feast!  

All of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes... which are very hard to replicate over here- requires many trips to different grocery stores and the American Store!  

Pumpkin pie!  

Barcelona

Last weekend, we were fortunate to travel to Barcelona.  We had a wonderful time enjoying the sea, the sights, and of course SANGRIA!

First night- mapping out the weekend!

Sunsets never get old...

"Big Bus Tour!"  

We decided it would be a good way to get around the city without much walking... 

It was great- yet we still walked 8 miles that day!!  

One attraction we visited was, Park Guell. The park was built between 1900 and 1914.  Eusebi Guell an entrepreneur, gave Antoni Gaudi the assignment of drawing up plans for developing the land with homes for well-off families.  Unfortunately, in 1914 they stopped building, due to lack of buyers.  Only two out of the sixty houses had been built and lived in.  In 1924, the park became city property, and was eventually opened to the public and has now become a popular Barcelona tourist attraction.  We spent some time walking around the garden area amazed by the mosaic artwork and the architectural work of Gaudi.  

The Dragon Stairway

The famous mosaic fountain, "The Dragon"

This girl loves the sea and sand- we spent a lot of time on the beach.

Our type of snow angels! Who needs snow???

Beautiful Barcelona- 

This week we are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with five other American families.  We are so thankful for the great friends that we have made while living here.  We are also EXTREMELY thankful that we will be flying home mid-December to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends back in Minnesota.  Happy Thanksgiving!  

  

A month of memories...

One month, five countries, and many memorable moments.  That pretty much summarizes our last month with my mom visiting.  We were so fortunate to have her come and stay with us.  When thinking of how to write this blog update, I decided there is absolutely no way that I can write about everything we did, so I will share highlights from the five countries we spent time in during her stay.

Italy
Italy is a short one hour drive from Geneva, so we decided we must take my mom there.  It was a day trip, but we definitely took advantage of our day!  Last time my parents were here, we had visited Chamonix, and tried to persuade them all to take the cable car to the top of Mount Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe.  Unfortunately, only my uncle was brave enough to do it.  Well, we were able to give my mom a second chance to visit the top, from the Italian side.  We did not give her much time to think about it, basically drove to the cable car and said good-bye as Adalyn held her hand!  She made it all the way to the top!  After the mountain visit, we walked through the village of Courmayeur.

On top of the World! 

Hike in Courmayeur

France
Since France is so close to our house, we tend to be in France as often as we are in Switzerland.  With my mom we visited Yvoire, Mt. Saleve, Santa's house, Megeve, and Annecy.

So much fun at the top of Mt. Saleve

Santa's Sleigh

Enjoying a carriage ride around the village of Megeve-

Beautiful day in Annecy

Austria
When we knew my mom was coming to visit and Adalyn had a week off from school, we knew we had to go somewhere.  We have been wanting to visit Austria and Germany, so we planned a road trip.  Our first stop was in Austria, which is about a four hour drive from Geneva.  We visited Lake Constance, which is a large lake that borders Switzerland, Austria, and Germany.  We ate dinner at a fantastic Austrian restaurant right along the lake and enjoyed spatzle and schnitzel.  We were only in Austria for one night, but what we saw of it reminded us a lot of Switzerland.

Outside of the restaurant- 

Eliza's baby is learning to walk... makes for longer walks!

Germany
Our next stop on our road trip was Fussen, Germany.  The main attraction in Germany closest to Switzerland is the Neuschwanstein Castle.  The girls are both into princesses, so we decided it would be a good time to visit the famous castle.  We arrived in Schwangau, Germany around noon.  We enjoyed another traditional German meal and shopped in the village.  We had made a reservation earlier in the week for our tour time, which if you ever plan to visit I would highly recommend.  We took a horse carriage up to the castle, which was so exciting for the girls!  The castle is a stunning site.  Such a large castle built for one man, who ended up only living in it for 6 months before he died.

Eliza trying to jump over the gate looking for Cinderella!  

Carriage ride selfie!

Our little German Girl

The owner of the horses told us their names were Kim Kardashain and J-Lo!!

(Kim Kardashian is on the left!)

Beautiful Castle

We stayed in Fussen, which is very close to the castle, and has a very cute old town area.  We enjoyed walking the cobblestone streets filled with different shops and restaurants.

We discovered a unique treat called, Schneeballen,

basically deep fried cookie dough in a ball- delicious!

Switzerland
Our last stop on our road trip was Zurich, Switzerland, which is the largest city in Switzerland.  We stayed near their old town and really enjoyed walking along the lake, shopping, people watching, and eating.  We were so lucky to find a German beer hall right in Old Town that was playing live German music.  It was definitely a memorable dinner for all of us.

And of course, time spent at our house.  The girls loved having grandma around at all times.  Eliza always wanted to know where "Jamma" was.  They were able to spend so much quality one on one time together.  They baked numerous times, did many crafts, tea parties, and Adalyn even learned how to sew!

First hand-sewing project!

We celebrated Adalyn's Birthday early with my mom- Adalyn got a kid sewing machine!

Birthday Fondue

The girls loved bedtime stories with Grandma- 

So many smiles!

We also were able to celebrate Halloween this past weekend.  We are so fortunate to have made great friends to share American holidays with.  We went to a Halloween party followed by trick or treating.  Trick or treating here is definitely different since it's not widely celebrated, but the girls were able to go to about ten homes, which was just perfect.  We all had a great night!  

Sophia the First and Dorothy

Great group of kids!  

This made me laugh- this is what they call "Sour Patch Kids!"